Strike up the band

Chances are good that if you or someone you know has taken a music class in Michigan in the last 70 years, your teacher was a U-M grad. Here are a few of their stories.

Married to music

She played the clarinet. He played the trombone. And they both belonged to the select club of music majors who performed in the Michigan Marching Band. Perhaps that’s why Kellie and Joe McInchak, (both BM ’02, pictured above), formed such a strong bond during the 1998 season. It was their freshman year at U-M.

“We were a couple before the end of the first semester, and we’ve been together ever since,” says Kellie. She and Joe married in 2004, just two years after graduation.

These days they work together, co-teaching band students at Tecumseh Schools, a small rural district in southeast Michigan.

Kellie, who started giving clarinet lessons to younger kids before she graduated high school, has always wanted to be a music teacher. She currently teaches band in 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. Joe is the high school band director.

“What I love about working with the band, which is quite different from many other teaching assignments, is that we really get to form a strong connection with these kids over the course of many years and watch them grow,” Kellie says. “What really drives me to teach these days is that music is something that helps kids to become more like themselves instead of everybody else.”

The McInchaks, who have three young children of their own, Andrew, Leo, and Claire, both worked at various schools — Kellie at Western High School and Middle School in Parma, and Joe at Elmwood Park High School in Chicago and North Farmington High School in Michigan — before bringing their practice together nearly four years ago in Tecumseh.

While working side-by-side at school and at home might prove challenging for many couples, Joe says the opportunity has been a dream come true.

“We’d always talk about maybe working together formally one day,” he says. “Though we worked at different schools before being at Tecumseh, we’ve constantly collaborated on some level; it’s the way we’ve always operated as a couple.”

Kellie, BM ’02, and Joe McInchak, BM ’02, co-teach 5th grade at Tecumseh Public Schools.

In addition to teaching middle and high school students, Kellie, BM ’02, and Joe McInchak, BM ’02, co-teach 5th grade at Tecumseh Public Schools. (Photo: Roger Hart, Michigan Photography.)

The McInchaks have maintained strong ties to U-M, mentoring student teachers from the music education program over the years, and bringing their own students on annual field trips to campus.

“We’ve never been too far away from Ann Arbor,” says Kellie. The couple brought their kids to their first Michigan Football game last year. “The football game was great,” she says, “but we were especially excited for them to see the marching band.”

I can hear music

The McInchaks are among more than 400 U-M alumni leading hundreds of elementary, middle, and high school music classrooms across the state of Michigan.

Boasting one of the oldest music education programs in the country, the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance is considered a national leader in preparing successful music pedagogues for 21st-century challenges. For many years, there has been a 100-percent job placement rate for U-M graduates hoping to begin a career as a music educator.

“Beyond our incredible placement numbers in Michigan, you can find many of our alumni teaching in public schools in each of the 50 states, and in many countries around the world,” says Michael Hopkins, associate professor and chair of the music education department. “It is rare that I go to a conference anywhere across the U.S. and do not run into someone who graduated from our program.”

Each year, SMTD’s Department of Music Education accepts about 15-20 new undergraduates in a competitive audition process, according to Colleen Conway, professor of music education.

“What’s really unique about our program is that, musically, our students are incredible — the educators that we’re producing are top-notch performers who also want to become music teachers,” Conway says. She’s been teaching at U-M for nearly 20 years.

“The students I’ve had here get really fired up about changing the world, and they see beyond the music a little bit and understand that what they’re doing will change lives. I can’t put my finger on what that is — maybe it’s the energy of campus or the way that Michigan encourages them to think beyond their little piece of the world.”

A legacy marches on

While learning to play the saxophone from his mentor and high school band director Bob Ambrose, MM ’82, Alan Posner imagined that he, too, would lead the band one day.

It didn’t occur to Posner, BA ’08, that he could — and would — succeed Ambrose upon his retirement from Bloomfield Hills High School.

Alan Posner, BA ’08

Alan Posner, BA ’08, conducts his high school band as Bob Ambrose (MM ‘82) looks on in 2002.

Ambrose, a trombonist, spent 38 years teaching music in Michigan. He met Posner when the aspiring musician was in the 6th grade and taught him through graduation in 2004.

“Anybody who knows Alan knows that he’s a great musician, really bright and has boundless energy,” says Ambrose. “What I love about teaching music is that I get to watch my students grow over the course of seven years or more — or in Alan’s case, for more than 20.”

Ambrose still keeps in contact with Posner, answering questions from time to time, even stepping in to teach classes recently when Posner took time off for the birth of his first child.

“As a teacher, mentor, and now a great friend, Bob has had a profound effect on my life, and is the main reason for my success today,” says Posner. He entered his 11th year as a band director in 2018, having also taught in Suttons Bay, Mich., and at Berkley High School and Norup International School, both in Berkley, Mich.

“For me, teaching is really about the students, to see where they start and how far they come. So many of them have exceeded my expectations — to see them go to college and, regardless of their major, to see that they can build upon a strong foundation in music.”

Posner, who was in the Michigan Marching Band, Concert Band, and Symphony Band at U-M, currently serves as president of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Directors Association, District IV. He performs regularly with many groups in the Detroit area and is director of “Klezundheit,” a band that plays klezmer, a traditional style of Jewish music.

His mentor Ambrose still teaches clinics, adjudicates competitions, and works on instrument fittings for a local music store. In addition, he enjoys visiting his grandchildren in New York and Charlottesville, Va., where his daughter Katy Ambrose, BM ’02, teaches horn at the University of Virginia. (Of course she does.)

Alan Posner, BA ’08

Alan Posner, BA ’08, is the director of bands at Bloomfield Hills High School.

Maize and blue … and green and white

Iain Novoselich, MM ’14, had been teaching for about four years at Addison High School and then Grand Haven High School, where he currently teaches, before deciding to pursue a master of music in music education from U-M.

He first crossed paths with U-M’s Professor Conway around 2006; she was a visiting lecturer while he was taking undergraduate classes at Michigan State University. It was one of the reasons he decided to explore U-M’s graduate program.

Iain Novoselich, MM ’14,

Iain Novoselich, MM ’14, is the director of bands at Grand Haven High School.

“Colleen is a great educator — she’s incredibly intense and wonderful, and I remember that it was her who made me realize that the University of Michigan’s network was one I wanted to become a part of,” Novoselich says. “For me, it was a great opportunity to branch out and gain invaluable insight from a [professor] different from my undergrad.”

Novoselich, like many of his peers, opted for U-M’s program that offers a master of music in music education over the course of three summer semesters. The program is designed specifically for working professional educators.

“What’s great about having gone to both [MSU and U-M] at different points in my career is that my network has gotten bigger and the music ed world has gotten smaller,” he says. “At the end of the day, we’re all working toward the same goals, teaching and helping kids here in Michigan to grow.”

Comments

  1. Patrick and Sonya Reynolds - BM81, MM83

    ….and we are a couple of Michigan music graduates carrying on the UM tradition in……Ohio!

    Reply

  2. Barbara Mark - 61 AMLS

    The band director at North Farmington when my kids were there was from Ohio State. He taught them script North. So cool. A couple of North’s kids went on to become the man up front of UMMB, plus lots of other band members.

    Reply

    • Janet Pierson - 1980

      Hi,
      I am a 76 graduated of North Farmington and read your comment and knew you were talking about Doug McQueen. I was in the marching band. I do remember the script North. Some of the students gave Mr. McQueen some good natured grief over being a “mini Ohio State band” One morning someone pinned up a maize and blue bumper sticker on the band room bulletin board- “A Buckeye is a hairless nut” Thought you might enjoy this little tidbit of info.

      Reply

  3. robin beth lash - 1976

    You should do a story about Joe Carl-band teacher in the State of Washington who played tuba and wrote the “Let’s Go Blue” jingle played all over the country!

    Reply

    • Jane Miller - 1965

      And Joe taught our son (U of M Class of 1990) in middle school band at South Haven, MI, before Joe took a job in Washington State.

      Reply

    • Doug Wilson - 1976, 1978, 1982

      I second that! Joe Carl helped put together an alumni band in Seattle. I never played in the UM marching band, but it was fun to join the alumni band when Michigan’s basketball team came to Seattle for the Final 4. And yes, we think of Joe every time we hear “Let’s Go Blue!”

      Reply

    • Steve Siler - 1990

      Joe Carl was my middle school band teacher. Several of his students from the small town of South Haven were in MMB.

      Reply

  4. Chris Campbell - 1972 (MA), 1975 (JD)

    My high school band teacher, Walter G. Cramer, was a proud U-M grad. He helped generations of kids in Bay City learn to play instruments and enjoy music, with wisdom, kindness, tolerance, and dedication. The hour of band was the bright spot in my high school day because I got to make music, albeit with little skill (but much joy). My theory is that we have two essential professions in a democracy: the teachers and the journalists. Mr. Cramer helped me appreciate the importance of teachers–not at the time, of course, but upon reflection. His career reflects well on U-M.

    Reply

    • Alicia Webb - 1977 BGS

      I forwarded your message onto Mr. Cramer’s daughter who is a friend of mine. So wonderful to hear about your experience. She was delighted to hear her dad had made a lasting impact on your life.

      Reply

  5. Bruce Galbraith - ‘62 B. Mus ‘63 MA Ed.

    So much of the credit rightfully goes to William D. Revelli. He was a teacher of teachers. We wanted his results (albeit with a bit more ‘sugar’!).

    Reply

  6. David Burhenn - 1975, 1982 (JD)

    May I add the name of Dan Kovats, ’53, who was, in the words of William Revelli (told to me personally) “my favorite student.” Dan led the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony for decades, and was one of the first faculty members of the music department at Grand Valley State University. An incredibly gifted trumpet player, he was also principal violist of the Grand Rapids Symphony. One of Dan’s favorite memories was of performing in the Michigan Marching Band in the infamous “Snow Bowl” where Michigan eked out a victory over the Buckeyes in 1950.

    Reply

  7. Marion Snook - '48 BS (Civil Engineering)

    Getting to be in UMMB was just a once in a lifetime wonderful experience! I was ordered to UM in 1945 in the Navy NROTC and was in William D. Revelli’s famous Michigan Marching Band immediately. Marching out onto the field from the tunnel at the Big House and seeing all of those thousands of fans was a tremendous thrill but also scary because I was hoping I wouldn’t do something stupid! I was blessed to go in the band to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game on January first 1948 where we beat USC 49-0 and were national champions! Another thrill that day was waving and hollering to Tom Harmon from our bus as he drove alongside with his wife Elyse Knox in a convertible auto! So many good things were made possible by UMMB, and I think back on them often.

    Reply

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